Students at Grace Christian Academy put on their lab coats and made some scientific discoveries during the school's fourth annual science fair.

Third- through eighth-grade students participated in the five-week long project.

Students were free to choose a science related topic of their choice then conduct a series of experiments to prove their hypothesis, create a poster board of their results and present them to the judges, according to Erika Sufka, Grace Christian Academy's math and Latin teacher and Science fair coordinator.

The projects ranged from global warming, electronics, baking and food to animals and candy experiments.

"I love to see their love for science grow as they experiment in the stuff that interests them," Sufka said.

The projects were judged by members of the community including local scientists and engineers.

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The winners were announced during the Grandparents Day ceremony last Friday with fourth-grader Jill Manzana receiving first place.

Manzana's report was on "Viscosity and velocity."

"I tested how fast balls with the same surface but different masses would sink to the bottom of a container filled with different types of liquids," Jill said.

She got her idea from "Science Buddies," a resource center given to students and parents at the beginning of the project.

She said her goal was to have fun and she wasn't concerned about winning.

"It was interesting to learn how different weights and surfaces work, but I mainly just wanted to play with all the sticky stuff," she said.

Seventh-grader Emma Sufka combined science and baking to receive second place with her project "Feeding Frenzy."

"I really love to bake and was curious how different sugars effect the outcome of bread," she said, "so I decided to test how sugars and substitute sugars affect yeast and the baking results."

She discovered that the only substitute sugar yeast would eat is Splenda.

"I am really proud of them all," said Sufka. "They put a lot of work into their projects and clearly had fun with them."